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Friday, 22 May 2009

The Best Fairy Cakes In The World.

One cup of… While the above photo of those pretty cupcakes are not mine, I can still make a pretty mean one! My decorating skills are also not entirely up to scratch. As one who likes the finer things in life (to an extent), I enjoy the idea of team parties (though hate tea!). As such, I usually have my own version of tea parties with juice, fruit smoothies and cupcakes! They’re my speciality, and after trailing through the internet I found the perfect recipe (that with a few tweaks) that never fails to get me compliments.

What you will need. I’m going to break this down into ingredients and tools for simplicity:

For the cake mixture:

1 cup of sugar

1/2 cup of butter (approx 125ml when melted)

3/4 cup of all purpose flour

3/4 cup of self raising flour

1 pinch of baking powder

1 large egg

1/2 cup of milk

1 tsp of vanilla extract

The tool list:

1 measuring cup

1 microwave safe cup/jug

1 large mixing bowl

1 large bowl

1 small bowl

1 sieve

1 fork

1 wooden spoon

1 teaspoon

1 cupcake baking tin

Cupcake cases.

What you get. The above ingredients will make approximately 18 standard sized little cupcakes. For the measuring cup, to go with the above recipe, should hold 250ml to ensure that the right quantities are used. I use cups for this recipe as I have as of yet to measure out the ingredients on scales, and it’s easier with the wet ingredients for this reason. Plus it’s more fun and makes me feel a bit Americanised!

What to do:

Preheat the over to 170-180'C before you start and gather together all of your ingredients and tools.

In your microwave safe jug (I borrow my flatmates Pyrex measuring jug) throw in a slab of butter and put in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time, taking out and stirring to ensure that it doesn’t explode (leaves a greasy microwave). For baking, I buy the butter than comes wrapped in foil and cut off 1cm portions at a time.

While your butter is melting, measure out one cup of sugar and pour into the large mixing bowl. Add the melted butter and stir the two together.

Crack the egg into the small bowl and whisk up, ensuring the yolk is broken and mixed in.

Into your large bowl, sieve the two flours together and mix well, adding the pinch of baking powder.

In your cup pour in your milk and add the vanilla extract.

Using the dry-wet-dry method add the mixed flour and vanilla mix to the large mixing bowl, alternating to make sure the mixture become too dry or too wet. When finished the mixture should be a pale browny-yellow beige colour and pourable.

Put the cake cases into the cake tins. Fill the cases between half and two-thirds full, depending on how much of a dome you want to have.

Place in the heated over for 12 – 15 minutes, rotating half way through the time.

When the cakes are ready you should put them on a wire rack to cool… but I don’t have one so just leave them on a plate for half an hour or so. They have to be fully cooled before decorating or it’ll get messy.